Bio Joy Harjo Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for B…
Carole Boston Weatherford is a children's book author and poet who mines the past for family stories, traditions, and struggles. A number of CAROLE's books tell the stories of African-American histori…
I was born in 1963 in Princeton, New Jersey, which back then was a quiet college town, surrounded by old farmland slowly giving way to housing developments. I spent a lot of time building dams and for…
David "Mas" Masumoto is an organic peach and grape farmer and author of Epitaph for a Peach (1995), which offers a glimpse of life on a family farm in Central California, Letters to the Valley, A Harv…
Sara A. Fajardo is a founding member of #LatinxPitch for KidLit. Her US debut picture book, Crack Goes the Cascarón, illustrated by Rocio Arreola Mendoza, releases on 2/18/25 from Knopf Books for Youn…
Veera Hiranandani is the author of THE NIGHT DIARY, THE WHOLE STORY OF HALF A GIRL, and the chapter book series, PHOEBE G. GREEN. She has an MFA in fiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College and spen…
Renée Watson is the author of the children’s picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, June 2010), which was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Her middle grade novel…
Calvin Alexander Ramsey is a playwright, photographer, and painter. He adapted one of his plays for print as Ruth and the Green Book, illustrated by Floyd Cooper. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Jonathan Fenske is the author and illustrator of the leveled readers Woodward and McTwee, Love Is in the Air, Guppy Up!, and A Pig, a Fox, and a Box, which was a 2016 Geisel Honor book. He is also the…
Kiese Laymon is a black southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University before graduating from Oberlin College. He earned an MFA…
Greg Pizzoli is the author and illustrator of The Watermelon Seed, winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, Number One Sam, Templeton Gets His Wish, Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man W…
Residing in Cleveland, Ohio, Harris is a second-grade teacher at Michael R. White Elementary School. We Made It to School Alive, his second collection of poetry, was inspired by his work as a teacher …
Nikkolas Smith is an Artivist, Concept Artist, Children's Books Author, Film Illustrator, and Movie Poster Designer. He is also a Master of Architecture recipient from Hampton University. After designi…
Vashti Harrison, author and illustrator of the bestselling Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, is an artist, author, and filmmaker with a passion for storytelling. She earned her MFA in film …
Zeke Peña is a Xicano storyteller and professional doodler from El Paso, TX, the Sun City.Sundust, his author-illustrator debut is a love poem to desert culture and people. Zeke received the Ezra Jac…
TASHA SPILLETT-SUMNER (she/her/hers) draws her strength from both her Nehiyaw and Trinidadian bloodlines. She is a celebrated educator, poet, and emerging scholar. Tasha is most heart-tied to contribu…
Angie Kang makes art in LA. She is the author-illustrator of OUR LAKE (Kokila) which received a Caldecott Honor, the Charlotte Zolotow Award, the Dilys Evans Founder’s Award, and was featured on "Best…
